Chenille making machine



011 1946. J. WILMSEN CHENILLE MAKING MACHINE Filed Nov. 19, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR JOSEPH WILMSEN WITNESSES:

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ATTORNEY N E s M n. w Im CHENILLE MAKING MACHINE Filed Nov. 19, 1945 2 Sheets-Shet 2 F'zch5f WITNESSES:

INVENTOR N "WY M E M WWW H A w sm o Patented Oct. 8, 1946 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,408,898 CHENILLE MAKING MACHINE Joseph Wilmsen, Rushland, Pa. Application November 19, 1945, Serial No. 629,491

1 Claim. 1

My invention relates to chenille-making machines and more particularly to improved means for carrying the pile-forming strands.

In machines of this type and particularly those used for making tinsel of the type used for decorating Christmas trees and on other festive occasions, it i the usual practice to provide each machine with two separate heads, each of which, in the more improved machines, forms two ropes of tinsel. The tinsel is formed from relatively thin strands of metal foil which are twisted and looped on and between strands of yarn, the loops being then cut so as to produce loose ends which extend at an angle to the supporting or core yarns. In order to give the tinsel a thick, fiuify appearance, it is desirable to use a large number of ends or strands which are fed simultaneously. However, since machines of this type are long and narrow, and since it is the practice to provide each machine with two spinning heads so as to produce two ropes of tinsel simultaneously, there is no room for accommodating two heads, each of which is large enough to carry the required number of spools. been the practice heretofore to take several spools of tinsel strands, for example four, each containing a predetermined number of feet of strand, as, for example, on hundred feet, and to rewind the strands from all four spools onto a single spool of the same size. The result is that the single spool referred to carries only twenty-five feet of l-ply tinsel strands. When thi practice is followed, it is necessary to stop and respool the machine as soon as the twentyfive feet of 4-ply strands have been used up. This, together with the necessity of winding the strands from several spools onto one spool, retarded production and increased costs.

This problem ha heretofore been recognized and an attempt to solve it is disclosed in Anderson Patent No. 1,585,357 of May 18, 1926. In this particular patent, the solution of the problem consisted in providing a greatly enlarged head for supporting the spools and by mounting on said head concentrically-staggered rows of spools. This, as above stated, is not an adequate remedy because machines of this type currently used are narrow and there is no room for enlarged spool heads.

It is, therefore, a specific object of the invention to produce an improved supporting head whereby a greatly increased number of spools may be supported without increasing the size of the head itself, so that conventional machines may be equipped with two head without mate- It, therefore, has

rially altering the structure of such machines,

while permitting such machines to operate for relatively long periods of time without the necessity of interruption for re-spooling.

This and other objects are'attained by my invention as set forth in the following specification and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, i which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary top plan view of a conventional chenille-making machine of which only the parts necessary for illustrating the invention have been shown.

Fig. 2 is a view partly in section and partly in side elevation, of the machine shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an end elevation taken on the line IIIIII of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a plan View of the forming bar which is part of the conventional machine.

Fig. 5 is a section on line VV of Fig. 4..

In Fig, 1, there is shown a source of power, such as a motor M, which drives a shaft 5 which carries a gear 7. The gear I meshes with ring gears 8 which form part of or are carried by each of two spool-supporting heads 9. Alternately, the spool-supporting head 9, instead of having ring gears 3, may be provided with grooves which will be engaged by a belt driven by the motor M or other source of power. The heads 9 are carried by sleeves H! which are mounted on stub shafts I I and provided with suitable thrust beariIlgs Q. When the heads 9 are rotated by the gear I, the sleeves l6 also rotate On the stub shafts H. Each of the stub shafts ll carries a forming bar l3 which is provided with radial grooves 14 and above and below which are suitably mounted rotating cutters IS. The textile yarns about which the tinsel yarns are twisted, together with the guide wires forming part of conventional machines of this type, have been omitted from Fig. 2 for clarity of illustration. The sleeves II] are provided with rods l6 which carry a guide ring 11 which rotates with the sleeves Ill and the heads 9.

conventionally, and as illustrated in the patent above referred to and such other patents as Wolkow, No. 1,039,876, of October 1, 1912, the spools which carry the tinsel strands are mounted on the left-hand side of the head, as viewed in Fig. 2, and the strands from the spools are twisted about the forming bar and are cut by the cutters I 5 above and below the bar. The textile yarns about which the tinsel strands are twisted have been omitted from Fig. 1 also, but the guide wires, which serve to propel the work to the left, as viewed in Figs. 1 and 2, are shown at 16 in Fig.

1, as are the guide rollers I8 over which these wires are endlessly driven. As will be seen from Fig. 1, the guide rollers I8 are in the nature of grooved pulleys which overlap the opposite edges of the forming bar. The parts heretofore described may all be conventional and form no part of the present invention.

In order to carry out my invention, namely, to avoid rewindlng two or more spools carrying tinsel strands onto one spool and thu shorten the operation of the machine between re-spoolings, I hav devised the head shown best in Fig. 3. As will be seen from this figure and from the other figures of the drawings, I have'mounted a number of spools 20 on opposite sides of the head 9, the spool on one side of the head being preferably staggered with respect to the spools on the other side thereof. Each of the spools 20 is mounted on a stub shaft 2| and is tensioned by a spring 22. To One side of the head 9, I provide an auxiliary head 23, which is provided with apertures 2:1 which register with apertures 25 in the head 9 and through which the tinsel strands 26 from the spools on the corresponding side of the head are adapted to pass.

As will be seen from Fig. 2, the strands 26 from the spools on the right-hand side of the head 9 are guided by the ring I! onto the forming bar 13, while the strands 21 from the spools on the left-hand side of the head impinge directly upon the forming bar. As the sleeve III, the head 9 and the auxiliary head 23 rotate, the strands 26 and 27 are twisted n the forming bar and are cut by the cutters I to form multiple ropes of tinsel 28, as shown in Fig. 1.

As shown in Fig. 3, the head 9 is provided with eight spools on each side thereof, making a total of sixteen. This, however, is simply for the purpose of illustration, because in actual practice and on an actually-operating machine, there are sixteen spools on each side of the head 9, giving a total of thirty-two spools, all of which feed strands of .tinsel simultaneously to the forming bar [3. By this means the tinsel is formed from thirty-two separate ends, so that it has the desired thickness and fiuffiness, but, since all thirty-two spools are original spools, that is, each of which carries a single end, it follows that the machine will run until the tinsel strands on the spools are used up. Since the strands of tinsel are extremely thin and since each spool carries a single strand, it follows that each of the thirtytwo spools carries a, much longer strand of tinsel than would be the case when two or more spools are re-wound on a single spool to provide two, three or four ends on one spool. For example, if in prior conventional machines, the spool head is provided with sixteen spools, each of which carries two strands, so as to produce a tinsel rope formed of thirty-two ends, such machine will run for a period of time equal to one-half of the time for which a machine provided with a head embodying my invention and carrying sixteen spools on each side will run. In other words, the conventional machine referred to has to be respooled twice, every time that a machine embodying the head of my invention will have to be re-spooled once. This increas in the length of time of continuous operation of the machine constitutes a very great saving in time and labor and, because the spool are located on opposite sides of the head, the overall dimensions of the head will not be increased. Therefore, a conventional machine, such as that illustrated in Fig. 1, instead of having two, heads each having eight spools with four strands on each spool, with the spools all on one side of the head, will, according to my invention, have two heads each of which has sixteen spools, thus providing the same number of ends without enlarging the machine or materially altering the arrangement of the operative parts thereof.

What I claim is:

The combination with a tinsel making machine of a spool head for supplying strands of tinsel to the forming bar of said machine, said head comprising a relatively small body of a size to fit the dimensions of a conventional machine of this type, a first plurality of spools on one face of said head, a second plurality of spools disposed on the opposite face of said head in staggered relation to the first mentioned spools, and a plate rotatable with said head and having apertures therein for passage of strands from said second plurality of spools therethrough, there being apertures in said head registering with the apertures in said plate for passage of strands from said second plurality of spools in the direction of the strands from the first plurality of spools.

JOSEPH WILMSEN. 

